I'm not aware of any digital IP law which regulates the appearance of weapons in visual media (with PEOPLE, it's another story). The only thing that's regulated are the names, which is why game developers often have to make up fictional names for the guns.

Excalibur and AdAstra are right - the left-hand ejection ports are there because everyone thinks it looks cool to see the action of the gun working and the brass flying out.

I know in Counter strike you can change what hand you are.

Far Cry 2 does this as well, it even has a Springfield with a left-handed bolt. :rolleyes:

The reasons I've seen cited for this trend are:

* Brass flying across the screen is regarded by some as cool.

* Mirroring the guns emphasizes the moving parts as the weapon cycles and is reloaded. Apparently, this is considered to be more aesthetically pleasing.

Neither of those seem like compelling reasons to contradict reality to me, but oh well.

The worst offender I've ever seen was 007: Agent Under Fire. In the first tutorial mission, Bond uses a bolt action sniper rifle from a helicopter. It has a right handed bolt and is operated right handed. I was so relieved to finally see this done in a game, so imagine my surprise when Bond picks up a bolt action sniper rifle in the regular missions or in multiplayer. Left handed bolt, being fired right handed. :mad:

Well at least that gun had a stock that allowed left-handed operation without moving your hands, which actually made it realistic. But I think you're talking about Nightfire, not the mess that was Agent Under Fire.

Nobody played Firearms mod for Half Life? You can reload your weapon without cocking it if you have one bullet in the chamber, and also, it´s not like Counter-Strike that you keep all your ammo and you can reload all the time, in this game you have 2 or 4 mags for your rifle, and, if you left ammo in an almost-empty one, you can merge the magazines to save space.

Also, rifles aren´t left handed:

http://i31.tinypic.com/2yzd15s.jpg

Woops you're right, it was 007: Nightfire.

Heck yeah I love Firearms mod!

The CS left handed guns thing is for serious. The original mod(and the original disc release, before 1.6 and patches) had right handed models held by a left handed dude. Left handed was the default up until 1.6, IIRC.

Sorry I'm kind of late replying.

Yeah STALKER is my fav game series because of its gun play bullet physics, but the left handed ejection port just makes me think of my S.T.A.L.K.E.R. getting hit in the face by brass repeatedly.

Nobody played Firearms mod for Half Life? You can reload your weapon without cocking it if you have one bullet in the chamber, and also, it´s not like Counter-Strike that you keep all your ammo and you can reload all the time, in this game you have 2 or 4 mags for your rifle, and, if you left ammo in an almost-empty one, you can merge the magazines to save space.

*Raises hand*

Former Firearms 3.0 player here. Also, since you mentioned tracking ammo in different mags, I got a pet peeve. Don't exactly like games that don't allow you to consolidate ammo between mags. Take OPERATION7 for example. As I'm a somewhat compulsive reloader, I more often than not find myself with all half-empty mags.